Google starts testing its Fuchsia OS on Pixelbook

January 4, 2018, 1:10 PM IST

California: Google has started testing its Fuchsia Operating System (OS) on the $1000 Pixelbook hybrid laptop that was unveiled alongside the second-generation Pixel smartphone and Google Home Mini smart speaker at the company’s 2017 hardware event in California, reports said. “This isn’t your typical developer operating system, and you’ll need two machines to host and target a Pixelbook to load the OS. It’s interesting that Google has chosen its own Pixelbook to experiment with,” The Verge reported on Wednesday.

“Fuchsia has mostly been linked to embedded systems like wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the past, but testing was expanded to Intel’s NUC and Acer’s Switch Alpha 12 Chromebooks,” it added. The Pixelbook installation process for Fuchsia is not easy and the tech giant has reportedly recommended installing the OS with a USB drive.

Fuchsia OS has been open-sourced for the developer community to help build, test and evolve. It is different from the Linux kernels that are also the foundation of Android and Chrome OS. The operating system, which is being developed, is Google’s third operating system for Chrome OS and Android.

It has been described as targeting “modern phones and modern personal computers” that would put it in competition with both of Google’s existing operating systems, according to tech website Ars Technica.